REPORT: The First Overall Pick In The Draft Has Already Been Selected And We'll Find Out In The Next 24 Hours
And with the first pick in the inaugural PLL Collegiate Draft, the Archers have selected…
That’s right, folks. The first pick in the 2019 Draft has already been selected after the Premier Lacrosse League held their inaugural draft at NBC Sports Studios. And now all we have to do is just wait to find out who was picked after the draft was pre-recorded and will air on NBCSN tonight following game 7 of the Vegas vs San Jose series.
Unfortunately that means that the draft won’t air until sometime around 1am EST tonight/tomorrow morning. But the thought process here is that more people will be watching the end of game 7 between the Sharks and Golden Knights than people who would just tune it to watch the PLL Draft if it was broadcasted live on YouTube or Facebook or something like that. Also, the only people who would tune into the PLL Draft if it was broadcasted on YouTube are people who are already massive lacrosse fans to begin with. That is something that has been plaguing professional lacrosse for years now–the fact that they struggle to grow their audience because professional lacrosse has only been viewed by people who are already lacrosse fans in the first place.
By televising the draft on NBCSN tonight after that game 7, there’s a good chance that a lot of people who will already have that channel turned on their television never even heard of the PLL before. But now it’s right there in front of them. Some people may tune in to watch it since it’s already on. Some people may turn it off right away. But either way, there are all those people who aren’t lacrosse fans already who have now just at least heard of the league for the first time. Doesn’t mean that there will automatically be millions of new lacrosse fans by tomorrow morning after the draft. But it does mean that the league has at least been seen by people who would have otherwise never even heard of it. So if you’re somebody out there on the East Coast who is bitching about not being able to stay awake to watch the draft, and that the draft will be on a pre-recorded tape delay in the first place…just shut up. This draft isn’t necessarily for you. You’re going to figure out who got drafted to which team anyway. This draft is more about just getting the most amount of eyeballs as possible on a new league as we get closer to the start of the season.
So who went #1 in the draft? It’ll be pretty interesting to see what happens with Pat Spencer given the fact that so much talk has gone into the rumors about him spending the final year of eligibility playing DI basketball next season. Are the Archers going to spend the 1st pick in the history of the PLL on a guy who may not even play this summer in order to focus on basketball? Maybe, maybe not. And if it’s not Pat Spencer going 1st overall, who is next on the board? Do they grab a defenseman and take Cade Van Raaphorst out of Duke? They’re pretty loaded at attack already, maybe they look to add some depth at the midfield to go with a guy like Tom Schreiber. I still think you have to take Pat Spencer 1st overall no matter what, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happened at 1am.
P.S. – I’m just now starting to realize that some people may have thought I was talking about the 1st overall selection NFL Draft later this week. My apologies.